Turpin Children Lawsuit Ends With $13.5 Million Settlement

Six of the thirteen Turpin siblings reached a $13.5 million settlement in early 2026 with Riverside County and the private foster care agency ChildNet, ending a civil lawsuit that accused both defendants of placing the children into an abusive foster home after their 2018 rescue from their parents’ captivity. ChildNet agreed to pay $11.25 million and the county $2.25 million, giving each of the six plaintiffs $2.25 million before attorney’s fees.¹ Both defendants denied wrongdoing as part of the agreement.²

Who Sued and What They Alleged

On July 19, 2022, six Turpin siblings filed civil lawsuits in Riverside County Superior Court against the county’s Department of Public Social Services and ChildNet, a Long Beach-based foster care agency.³ The complaints alleged negligence, breach of mandatory duties, violations of the Child Abuse and Neglect Reporting Act, false imprisonment, and willful cruelty to a child.⁴ The siblings were represented by attorney Elan Zektser of Oakwood Legal Group and attorney Roger Booth of Booth Law.¹

Central to the case was the allegation that the Olguin household, where the six youngest siblings were placed, already had a documented history of abuse complaints before the children arrived. The complaints claimed ChildNet and the county knew about the red flags and placed the children there anyway.⁵ The plaintiffs’ attorneys further alleged that ChildNet had prioritized profits over child safety and had refused to release records to county investigators and law enforcement during the criminal investigation into the foster parents.⁴

How the Settlement Breaks Down

The cases settled before trial in late 2025, with the total announced in February 2026. ChildNet’s share of $11.25 million is roughly five times the county’s $2.25 million contribution, which is not covered by insurance.¹ Each of the six plaintiffs receives $2.25 million before attorney’s fees, an amount their attorneys said should support them for the rest of their lives.⁶

ChildNet spokesperson Eric Rose maintained that the agency “did not receive complaints or allegations of abuse” while the children were in its foster care program, and that ChildNet’s oversight ended once the Olguins adopted the children. Attorney Roger Booth called that distinction between fostering and adoption “shocking and horrifying.”¹ Riverside County no longer contracts with ChildNet.⁶

What Happened Inside the Foster Home

After their 2018 rescue, six of the youngest siblings were placed through ChildNet into the Perris home of Marcelino Olguin, his wife Rosa, and their adult daughter Lennys.⁷ The children later reported being struck in the face with sandals, having their hair pulled, being forced to eat until they vomited and then forced to eat the vomit, and being made to sit in circles to recount trauma they had already experienced at their parents’ hands.⁶

Retired Riverside County Sheriff’s detective Thomas Salisbury, who ultimately uncovered the abuse, described a five-year-old being forced to stand in a taped square on the floor, denied sleep, sprayed with water, signaled with a cowbell, and kicked when she fell.⁸ Marcelino Olguin was also accused of sexually touching children more than fifty times.⁹

The abuse went undetected for roughly three years. Salisbury said the county’s Children’s Services Division had received four earlier calls about the Olguin household that should have been reported to law enforcement but were not.¹⁰ When social workers did interview the children, the interviews were conducted in the presence of the foster parents, which the siblings’ attorneys said left the children too afraid to speak honestly.⁶ Salisbury said that in 2021, when the Children’s Services Division was preparing to close its investigation without removing the children, he intervened by obtaining arrest and search warrants on his own, bypassing county officials who had initially refused his request to remove the children from the home.

The County’s Own Investigation Found Systemic Failures

Riverside County commissioned an independent review in 2021 led by Stephen Larson, a former federal judge. The 634-page report, released on July 8, 2022, concluded that the social services system “failed” the Turpin children “all too often.” Investigators identified a 40% vacancy rate among caseworkers that pushed caseloads to about three and a half times the recommended level, and poor communication between the Public Guardian’s office, County Counsel, and the District Attorney’s office that produced what the report called a “legal turf war” over who was responsible for the siblings.¹¹

By 2026, the county reported that the Children’s Services Division had grown from 573 social workers in fiscal year 2021–22 to 740, that investigative caseloads had dropped by 27 percent, and that a licensed short-term, trauma-informed shelter had been established for children with complex needs.¹² At the state level, the report’s findings on inter-agency communication prompted Governor Gavin Newsom to sign SB 1054 in September 2022, allowing child and adult protective services agencies to share information about clients and their families.¹³

The Criminal Case Against the Foster Parents

The civil settlement ran alongside a separate criminal prosecution. Marcelino, Rosa, and Lennys Olguin were charged in November 2021 and all three eventually entered guilty pleas. They were sentenced on October 18, 2024, by Superior Court Judge Gail O’Rane at the Riverside Hall of Justice.¹⁴

Marcelino Olguin, 65, pleaded guilty to seven counts of lewd acts on a minor and one count of false imprisonment. He was sentenced to seven years in state prison and required to register as a sex offender for life.¹⁴
Rosa Olguin, 60, pleaded guilty to three counts of child abuse and one count each of witness intimidation, grand theft, and false imprisonment. She received four years of felony probation and 120 days in a sheriff’s work-release program.¹⁴
Lennys Olguin, 39, pleaded guilty to three counts of child abuse and one count each of false imprisonment and witness intimidation. She received four years of probation and 150 days in a sheriff’s work-release program.¹⁴

All three were ordered to have no further contact with the nine victims, a group that included the Turpin siblings and other children who had been in the home. Riverside County District Attorney Mike Hestrin called the abuse “unimaginable,” saying the children had been “further exploited by someone who was entrusted with their care.”⁷

Where the Siblings Are Now

Most of the thirteen Turpin siblings are now emancipated adults attending college or working. Only the youngest, around ten years old in early 2026, remains in the foster care system.⁶ In December 2024, Oprah Winfrey publicly revealed at the Paley Honors Fall Gala that filmmaker Tyler Perry had been providing financial, psychological, and emotional support to the siblings for years, having reached out after watching Diane Sawyer’s primetime special about the family.¹⁵

Jordan Turpin, whose 911 call at age seventeen led to the family’s rescue, has earned her high school diploma and enrolled in college. She has said the lawsuit was necessary to ensure “this doesn’t happen to other kids.”¹⁶

1
Press Enterprise. Six Turpin Children to Split $13.5 Million Lawsuit Settlement
2
U.S. News & World Report. California County, Agency Reach $13.5 Million Settlement With Six Turpin Children
3
Daily News. Turpin Children Suffered Beatings, Sexual Abuse in Foster Home, Lawsuit Alleges
4
Follow Our Courts. Turpin Siblings Sue County, Foster Agency for Placing With Abusive Foster Parents
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CBS News Los Angeles. Six Turpin Siblings Sue Riverside County, Foster Care Agency
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NBC Los Angeles. Turpin Children Settle With Riverside County After Being Placed in Abusive Foster Home
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ABC News. Foster Parents of Turpin Siblings Sentenced on Child Abuse Charges
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ABC 7 Chicago. Former Detective Thomas Salisbury Speaks on Investigation
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ABC 7. Perris Foster Parents Plead Guilty to Abusing Several Turpin Children
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Press-Telegram. The Turpin Children Wound Up in Yet Another Abusive Home, but This Investigator Saved Them
11
San Bernardino Sun. Riverside County Failed Turpin Children, Report Concludes
12
ABC News. Turpin Siblings Case: Riverside County Statement
13
Larson LLP. Riverside County Adopts Larson’s Recommendations to Improve Foster Care Systems
14
KESQ. Foster Parents of Several Turpin Siblings Sentenced on Child Abuse Charges
15
People. Tyler Perry Has Been Taking Care of Turpin Family, Oprah Winfrey Says
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ABC 7 New York. Turpin Lawsuit: Family House of Horrors Children